


Oh wicked hearts, beware (these predators are on the hunt)

by TheMidniteOwl



Series: there by the oceanside and other tales [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Animal Bride, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, But is it really since June isn't fully human?, Cannibalism, Child Abuse, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fairy Tale Elements, Hellhounds, Kidnapping, Magic, Magic-Users, Merformers, Murder, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Rape/Non-con Elements, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:00:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26379988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMidniteOwl/pseuds/TheMidniteOwl
Summary: Stories of men and their animal brides usually end in tragedy.Not with these two.(June, Soundwave, and glimpses when they were sidetracked as they made their way to a new life.)
Relationships: June Darby/Soundwave
Series: there by the oceanside and other tales [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917085
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. come here, my darling (prey)

_June_ , Soundwave walks over to her. His human form tall and dark as the depths he hailed from. A purple neckerchief covers the lower half of his face -it’s the same shade as his biolights. _I found it_. 

“Oh, how lovely.” She hides her response in her admiration over the set of whalebone combs in his hands. He sends a clear picture of a wooden box that’s wrapped in netting with seashells and metal bits and inside lays a precious treasure.

(The man who stole it is sleeping and well-guarded by Liam. The hellhound dragged him to the outskirts and into the nearby woods. Poor thing never heeded a mother's warning to never accept unattached things from strangers, especially with lovely faces.)

* * *

When they stop in this little village for supplies, there’s talk about a beautiful woman knocking on people’s doors, looking for a fur coat.

June sees it in the low murmurings and hidden expressions; sees those dark, sea-blooded eyes in the rough faces of oldest sailors and fishwives. (They know what she’s really asking for.)

Liam tilts his head at her as she digs her nails into Soundwave’s arm - she’s careful to keep them human-blunt and human-warm. He sighs in agreement and it starts again.

(Between the both of them, there’s nothing anyone can hide.)

* * *

The woman that stands before them is beautiful. Inhumanely so. Dark-haired and large, soulful eyes. When she sees the sealskin in Soundwave’s hands, the swell of her belly, and the iron necklace on her neck, that lovely visage changes into something terrible, a truly deep hatred.

Soundwave tenses and hisses at the selkie’s human form, far more mer than man as his natural characteristics peek through - eyes bright and bloody with purple light shines noticeably through his skin and clothes.

She stops, her expression smoothes over and those dark eyes watch them, guardedly. She isn’t alone -seals wait in the shoreline. All of them quiet, staring at them with frighteningly sharp intelligence.

June smiles, her face is gentle and her teeth on full display. A trickle is all she needs and it keeps the collar inert. She whistles and Liam comes forth, dragging a rope-bound man to them. Hellhound at half-size but definitely large enough to easily handle a full, grown man on his own.

“This one stole from you,” June speaks, her smile so sharp, so wide. Soundwave is just as menacing. “We came to return something precious.”

She takes it all. Her kin dragging the almost-kidnapper into the waves.

They watch. They wait.

No one comes out.

Good, she thinks, and they leave.

* * *

June isn’t like her mother. She doesn’t have the willingness to damn a whole town for one man’s betrayal. (But weren’t they at fault as well? Who fashioned her collar and laid its enchantments? Who gave him the necessary ingredients to slip away from her sight, to allow lovely silver cover damning iron? Trapped as his wife and unable to return to the forest and help the townsfolk as before, none held relief when she told them to go to Mama instead. Just resignation to it all.)

Oh, but she had inherited her parents’ Hunger and all that entails. That her can blood boil, that her teeth ache fiercely to tear and rend. No matter how gentle and kind and soft she is, June is the daughter of a witch and a wandering shapeshifter.

(Kindness doesn’t mean without cruelty. Not to one that’s fae-blooded, witch-blooded.)

* * *

In a bustling town, June is drawn by a shop filled to the brim with specialized glassware and dried plants. Soundwave stills so suddenly that it snaps her attention away from the stasis jars. He stalks away, quickly and quietly, and she follows right behind. Humans around them part away, expressions dazed and movements strange. June immediately blankets the area, lulling the busy marketplace to look away, to not pay heed to them. 

Something raised his hackles quite terribly for Soundwave to blatantly display himself like that. 

He absolutely heads straight to a shop tucked away from the main street. Its owner greets them and then tries to pull Soundwave away from barrels at the side. Not the ones filled with live fish, but the one backed into a corner, hidden by tarps and wooden boxes.

Nestled within it, a shallow layer of water and a skinny merpup.

And she sees red.

* * *

As a child, she took Mama’s words so very seriously.

(When she’s older and far more dangerous, she will experience a harsher lesson when her human husband places a beautiful silver necklace that later became an iron collar upon her neck, _“For you, my lovely wife. A sign of my love to you.”)_

_Never stray from me, little fox, for you are small and delicious._

The woods witch held the same warning for monsters and men, alike. 

(Both want pretty, little things for different reasons. But it’s all the same in the end since such little ones are sweet prey.)

* * *

The necklace sears her, cooking her flesh to the bone as power floods out of her. Soundwave had torn out all they needed to know and left with the pup. He only had one request and it makes no difference to her - the end will be the same.

Liam shakes his fur, sparks ignite and devours wood, tarps, and other flammable materials; eyes bright and bloody as he sets it all ablaze in fire and brimstone. He gets larger and larger and then bursts in a great plume of smoke and ichor, the black ooze eating everything else.

“ _Witch!”_ The shopkeeper howls and stumbles in an attempt to flee through the back. She follows, the iron burning a furious white to cage her in a human form. The numerous eyes in her hair spin and focus on her target.

There’s no escape. Not from her. Not from this.

“ **Oh, no** ,” she purrs as her prey’s eyes are blown wide from fear and terror at the sight of her wide maw and melting skin, her shifting bones and the numerous eyes glaring from her slithering hair, knocking over merchandise and blocking the exit. “ **I am far worse**.”

* * *

The shop burns the entire day and night. No amount of water quenches its ravenous hunger, not until the whole structure is simply ashes and charred wood. Miraculously, the other shops remain untouched. 

(The shopkeeper was never found. Not even a skeleton amidst the rubble.)

* * *

June sinks heavily next to Soundwave and rests on his armored shoulder. He broke away the spell that kept him human and she needs to redo it. She inhales the salty air and listens to the pup noisily chew on the strips of seaweed and Soundwave’s low purring as the waves break upon the shore.

A familiar weight settles on her lap with the familiar smokey scent, June pets Liam’s head and neck. The hellhound chuffs out more heat and ash, tail thumping happily on the sand as they soak up the quiet. Her hair has a mind of its own; it lengthens and spreads out, part of it wraps loosely around Soundwave’s waist as some tendrils trace over black scales and run over the bioluminescent dorsal fin to the tip of his tail. A few slither down to stroke Liam’s sides, swallowing his immense heat without singeing.

There’s a questioning chir from the pup and she smiles kindly to them, eyes still burning with blue fire with the gore on her face still sticky and wet. Her neck’s still healing; raw and blistered rather than blackened flesh and bone. Soundwave then reaches over and wipes a thumb over the mess that clings to her cheeks and lips. He offers it to the pup who opens their mouth and suckles it greedily, their red eyes half-lidded and sleepy and strangely catlike. They purr like one, too. A light doze is hidden underneath Soundwave's deep, rougher one as a tendril brushes their side.

The armor over his face shifts away and presses his own mouth just as hungrily to hers. He takes the bits of flesh and bone in her teeth and she sighs into it, careful not to crush the treasure that’s cradled between them. He ends it with a chaste kiss to a blood-stained cheek.

_The next one will be mine._ He vows with dark satisfaction in his eyes and her heart skips a beat, her pearl as bright as her eyes on his collar.

“Of course, my dear.”


	2. a trade for my love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some tales are happy, but those aren't well-known. (After all, it's tragedy that's well-loved and well-recorded.)

“You are witch-born.” This is a different dark-haired, dark-eyed woman in a different village. Two children are by her side and they definitely take after their mother’s sea-blood. “I request a boon if you’re able.”

In her hands, a jar of honey and a loaf of bread -an expression for a trade. The little girls watch them from their mother’s skirts. 

Soundwave, ever quiet and always watchful, remains by her side. He rarely leaves her alone after they took in the merpup unless it’s for hunting. Little Ravage remains deep asleep in her arms with potion-aid; neither of them like it but June’s still recovering from the merpup's rescue and from redoing the spell that anchored Soundwave to a human form. She can’t use the same method to hide Ravage; it merely changes the form, not the mind. Infant merpup noises definitely can’t pass as a human baby. Soundwave, despite his skill in the mental arts, is mute and doesn’t know the little things that make humans at ease with each other.

It's far more efficient to give a nudge (or a shove) of persuasion whenever someone tries to focus on her and Ravage, or give a temporary illusion of a sleeping baby in her sling when needed.

June and Soundwave follow her to a small, cozy home in the bluffs. She shows her where her sick husband lies.

“Elani,” the man chants deliriously and feverishly. “Elani Elani Elani.”

The selkie returns to his side and chitters, the noise strange coming from a human’s mouth. It soothes the man to mutters, eyes closed and rolling about, skin far too pale as he shivers in the bed. Elani tucks a small blanket around him, the fur lovely and dark and definitely not Elani's, smelling like bloody seawater.

June passes off Ravage to Soundwave, asking him to keep watch on the children. Red eyes gleam as he watches her carefully before taking the bundle and disappearing to another room. Soundwave could smell it, too. The curious fur and the unnatural sickness on the man.

She inhales deeply, breathing in the acrid taste of a curse anchored deep into the man's blood. Magic from the sea folk tend to be tricky things; their curses mimic the sea-born, the chosen anchor constantly moving and shifting like the tides and highly adaptable. Very aggressive.

Tricky but not impossible. 

Not to someone with her background.

"I can save him but it will scar. Quite badly depending on its hold." 

Elani barks out a laugh as if she said something utterly ridiculous, the ocean singing deep in her voice, "What does that matter to those sea-born? Better to be scarred and alive than whole and dead." Dark eyes hard as hands rest a shivering chest. "Do whatever is necessary, witch-born. Drive the curse out."

June smiles calmly and pulls her bag onto the bed. 

Elani grips her wrist, thin fingers strong. She leans over, those dark eyes unfathomable, murmuring very quietly, “Is he that bound you?" Those eyes flick over to the door and back to her face, voice still low as if Soundwave could hear pass the silencing ward June placed on the doorway. "Even a lone mer can be taken down easily.”

June then smiles, unnaturally wide and teeth so very sharp. Elani doesn't flinch, eyes deep as the Abyss. Sea folk and forest folk do overlap in some ways. "We were both caught by the same man. We escaped."

The selkie hums, eyes with hard approval, and the matter is dropped.

They pull him from the cocoon of blankets, and she coaxes him to drink a concoction made from charcoal from the firepits Liam rested inside. They work together to strip him down, leaving him naked. June isn't surprised when the fur blanket is actually a coat, but what's curious is its flayed edges. Selkies tend to very meticulous over their coats, grooming them to keep them well-maintained for a smooth transformation.

Elani pulls it out and folds it before tucking it underneath his head as a pillow. She strokes his face tenderly, her face soft as she whispers something too low to catch and pulls away. 

June coats his hands, feet, and hair in a thick paste of Liam's ashes, purple coneflowers, burdock, and red clover. Then with a rowan brush, she paints a large concentric pattern upon his left shoulder, three circles with the smallest one as large as her palm. June moves to draw an unbroken connection from each part that's coated in the mixture. The lines running up his limbs and over his torso, making sure they pass over his heart, joining the most outermost circle at different points. She takes special care on his head, guiding the brush over one cheek, under the jaw, down the neck, and connecting it to the pattern. She does the same to the other cheek, so two lines bisect his face. 

The ink is made from her and Elani's blood with crushed rowan berries. _Blood for blood,_ as Mama taught her.

Already the lines glow soft, pulsing in the direction she'd drawn out. The space within the innermost circle begins to fill as the skin becomes inflamed as it continues to draw the cursed poison into one place and trap it. 

Her face cracks, bones shifting to grow a snout and an appropriate jaw, sharpening and lengthening her teeth, letting them line the roof of her mouth as well. June waits until the skin within the entrapment darkens and bulges out. With a lunge she bites viciously deep into his shoulder, right over the whole pattern and deep into his meat, scrapping along bone. Flesh parts easily but isn't just blood that fills her mouth, the curse manifested as black ink and she swallows it all. He convulses, limbs spasm violently, and she presses down on his arms harshly as Elani holds his legs. Over his screams, the painted lines a bright, vivid red as the curse fights to flow backwards.

She can't help the low chuckle in her throat and sucks over the pattern, those bloody lines forcing the poison straight into her maw. June tears it to shreds inside and bolstering herself as the iron necklace flairs alive, but this time to aid in its destruction as it rejects malicious intent.

Screams turn into cries, then into begs for mercy, then pitter off into whimpers. 

June drinks and drinks until the lines fully dim to its initial color, its inactive state, and she could only taste clean blood.

She keeps her jaw in place as she carefully reaches for several vials in her bag and a clean rag. The stopper pulls off neatly on the first one and it breaks the stasis spell over the healing potion, she coats the rag. The yarrow and witch hazel strong as it tingles her fingers. Quickly, June releases her mouth and pulls away, immediately pressing the soaked rag onto the area where the poison was once trapped. She pours the rest over the concentric pattern. Blood clotting as skin knits back.

The damage from the curse in outermost circle is minimal, so the flesh comes together easily with faint marks where her teeth had latched on. Around the second circle, there's some raised scarring but those will fade with time and care. However, it's the innermost circle that received the brunt of the curse's desperate last stand -flesh gnarled and lumpy in a very pink, near perfect circle with a few stray branches peeking out of it.

June wipes away the mess on her face, letting her bones shift back to a human state, she cracks her jaw. She unstops the other vials and coax him to drink the second one with a bit of magic -not a full compulsion, but a lulling, soothing murmur of safety and home. The third takes a little more murmurs. Its the fourth that makes him balk; even weakened from pain, blood loss, and exhaustion, he tries to turn away. Elani steps in and holds him, chittering and crooning, he stops and simply drinks the last one before being pulled back to sleep from it.

Elani continues to croon until his face relaxed and his breathing turns deep and even.

They stay like that for awhile. June puts a blanket on him, Elani by his side. Letting the peace wash over them as June collects everything and watches the man with a keen eye -color returning to his face, the stench of unnatural illness disappearing from the room, his frame relaxed.

"It was the tea. Chamomile, lavender, and a few other things." The selkie wife says, her tense frame now loose. She holds his hand, her thumb stoking the area above his knuckles. It does explain his reluctance since she uses chamomile in her sleeping potions, it's usually gentle enough to nudge little ones into a nap and the sick into much needed rest. "He's restless at night. Sometimes he can't sleep. And I often take the girls to my colony so they know _where_ and _how_. There's dissenters among them since I've taken a human as a mate-" Her voice turns hard. "-but it was _my_ decision."

She chitters again, brushing away a few crusty curls away from his face. "Our little ones sought help for their papa from a close friend. We were weaned together. Studied together. Hunted together. They were vocal about their dislike but never around my pups. I didn't know what they've done since the girls snuck away. And Stephen doesn't know the subtle signs of curses by my kin." With a heavy sigh, Elani pulls away and turns to June, eyes dark and deep and unforgiving as the sea. "The one who did this is gone. I refuse to speak their name, and took their life as compensation."

June nods, understanding what she means. _Blood for blood_. But the thing about anchored curses, they can continue even after the castor's death since they're fixed on a target and purpose. "What's done is done. He will heal."

They move on to discuss Stephen aftercare. Honey and garlic to help with inflammation and keep it from swelling. Cold compresses with seawater will help with the aches. Dark curses leaves their marks on their victims, as does its treatment; Stephen will always carry the entrapment pattern seared onto his left shoulder along with scar tissue, but he walks away with a full life.

* * *

In the kitchen, Soundwave is busy with fish. Hands moving efficiently and quick as he guts salmon after salmon and sets the innards aside in a bucket. Chunking it down to far manageable pieces to salt or smoke.

The girls are by his side, chirping and barking to the merpup set in a sling and cozy on Soundwave's back -Ravage responds with her little peeps, face darting whenever one girl speaks. The girls' eyes are fully dark as if the whole pupil drowned out their whites, the freckles across their faces darken to black and few spots larger as well.

Elani makes an approving noise from the back of her throat and moves to the fireplace where Liam is curled up directly on the logs, keeping the heat even and controlled as a large pot boils away fish guts to refine oil.

(They stay for dinner.)

* * *

Before they leave to move onward, Elani presses a package to her hands. Inside is a simple garment fit for a small child, a baby. Along with a simple silver necklace with a shell as a pendant. A small trickle of magic finds the enchantments carved neatly between the delicate ridges, hiding within the orange gradient.

 _A very fortunate deal,_ Soundwave speaks, admiring it. _Such talismans are coveted and feared by others since it can steal voices._

Even forest folk have heard tales of sea-born witches' most prized possession. 

“A boon for a boon.” Elani’s dark eyes flick to the bundle in her arms, Ravage’s catlike eyes drooping, purring contentedly after being fed. "They're many tales about this particular tool. I cannot give secrets of my kin, but I can say its user can mimic any sound they hold dear when stored properly. This one would be of great use to you."

June holds her as Soundwave slips it on a merpup, over scales, webbed fingers, and ridges that will one day become armor segments, and out comes smooth human flesh and soft human skin with two legs than a thick tail. She clips on the necklace and Ravage’s confused chirps turn into confused babble.

June croons, holding her up to her neck as tears begin to form in Ravage’s eyes -red had shifted to hazel with gold flecks. She pats her back as Ravage noses into her neck and clings to her robes, looking for comfort as her new form’s very disorientating.

“Your pup will outgrow it eventually,” Elani cautions. “It’s a pity that human clothing can’t bond and adapt like skin.”

Sealskin. A sealskin is commonly referred to as a fur coat by humans. Something that can't be taken unless the user willing does or when dead.

Quite the boon, indeed. Especially from a master artificer from a selkie colony.

With the trade complete, they move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plants listed actually do have medicinal properties (plus magical symbolism FTW) and were used in traditional medicine. (Hell, even in modern medicine or as an alternative.)
> 
> Fae are very terrifying, but so are sea folk. After all, sapient beings/creatures that actively hunt other sapient beings/creatures give such peoples a very strange mindset and morals on different matters.


End file.
